5-Day Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro Budget Camping Safari

Your driver-guide collects you in Arusha in the morning and heads south-west to Tarangire National Park, holder of Tanzania's largest elephant population, with herds of 50 to 100 gathering along the Tarangire River among the park's famous scattered baobabs.

You'll spend the afternoon on a game drive through the park before continuing to Fig Tree Lodge for your first night, roughly a 1–2 hour drive away.

After breakfast at Fig Tree Lodge, you'll drive through Mto wa Mbu and up onto the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, crossing the crater highlands before descending onto the vast open plains of the Serengeti.

You'll enter Central Serengeti in the afternoon with a game drive en route to camp, keeping an eye out for the resident lion prides, leopards and the huge herds that make this one of the most famous ecosystems on earth. You'll spend the night at a budget camp inside Central Serengeti National Park.

A full day is spent exploring Central Serengeti's Seronera Valley, one of the richest game viewing areas in Tanzania year-round, with permanent water drawing predators and grazers regardless of season. Expect good chances of lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant and, depending on the time of year, the passing wildebeest migration.

You'll return to the same budget camp inside Central Serengeti National Park for a second night, with a packed lunch enjoyed out on the plains.

A final morning game drive in the Serengeti before you begin the drive back east, climbing up out of the plains and onto the Ngorongoro Highlands. The scenery changes dramatically here, from open savannah to cool, forested crater rim, often shrouded in mist.

You'll camp for the night on the Ngorongoro Highlands, close to the crater rim and ready for an early descent into the crater itself the next morning. Nights up here are noticeably colder than on the plains below, so warm layers are recommended.

An early start takes you down into the Ngorongoro Crater — a collapsed volcano 600 metres deep and 260km² wide, home to more than 30,000 animals and the highest density of lions in Africa, alongside resident black rhino and large bull elephants.

After your crater game drive and a picnic lunch, you'll climb back up to the rim and begin the drive back to Arusha, arriving in the afternoon and marking the end of your tour.